Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-02-01

is one of the results of family need, mis-
fortune and poor estate. Society should,
therefore, throw about this necessity all
the guards it can, not only in the interests
of parents who feel it necessary to put
their children into messenger service; but
in its own interest, that these lads may
not, by force of their vocation, be made
familiar with the haunts of vice, partici
pants in their viciousness, or be brought
into contact with those whose very touch
is impure. The failure to pass such a law
as is suggested might be taken as an indi
cation of the exercise of the power of in
terested influences upon which it will bear
indeed, the word, it is said, has already
gone out that the bill is "cinch meas
ure But this is wholly unwarranted, and
the gentlemen who originated it are not
likely to permit any such imputation to
attach to it, nor any one to vouch for such
a charge. 1t was born, we feel certain, of
honest impulse and a sincere desire to con-
serve the public good. If the laws are to
be approved which prohibit the sale of
liquors to minors, and prevent those under
16 from entering saloons, or dance-houses
and we have yet to meet the citizen who
condemns such statutes-why not prohibit
also the entry of children for any purpose
to such places as the bill indicates. Sec
tion 800 of the Penal Code now makes it
criminal to admit any minor to house of
prostitution, but the penalty falls only
upon the keeper of such houses. The
proposed new law holds the employer of
the messenger boys to accountability, and
therefore aims in the right direction.
THE striking carmen in San Francisco
propose, by cooperation, to build line Of
cable railroad parallel to and near those of
the Suffer and Geary-street lines. This is
legitimate opposition. 1t is improbable
that they will accomplish the feat, but it
is their right to try it, if the local legis-
lature grants the use of the necessary
streets, as it probably will do. The two
companies against which they propose to
run San opposition line of street rail-
way, claim that they have not made such
earnings as to justify the increase of wages
the strikers demand. If this is not fiction,
how further division of the public patron
age is to maintain a new line is not clearly
seen. The cost of construction, when the
estimates are all in, will probably be found
to demand such outlay and credit as to put
the strikers upon the waiting" list for
dividends for a term of years, and this
will discourage them at the outset. But
no objection can be raised to this form of
opposition, however doubtful a venture it
may be financially. By the project of CO.
operation, however, it may turn out that
the strikers will have the whip hand and
come into good business by failure of one
of the other lines, for capital will have its
IcNdEu, anu ii IL uOeS nOl receive It's re-
turn from the existing roads, it will aban-
don them. All legitimate efforts of labor
to secure for itself fair wage, a high
wage, will have public approval and sym
pathy. The disposition of the people in
this country is averse to the decline of
labor's reward. They recognize the truth
that the better the reward gives the better
result to society and elevates labor to a
higher plane, enabling it to surround itself
with more of the comforts of life, and lift
ing it above servility. If the carmen have
savings laid by and can by cooperative
action invest so as to make them pre-
prietors instead of employees, they will
illustrate i'll forcible manner the great
opportunities citizenship in free Gov.
eminent opens up to workingmen, and the
folly of attempting by coercive measures,
that which can be best accomplished upon
a legitimate plane.